The Angio-Seal arterial closure device is widely used to prevent bleeding and facilitate early ambulation after arterial puncture. We had referred to us three female patients in whom this device had been used; its sponge had been unintentionally deployed in the arterial lumen. In a fourth female patient, a dissected plaque underneath the device occluded the femoral artery. Severe lower extremity ischemia occurred in each case. One intraluminal sponge was detected only after 20 days, when the patient had developed severe symptoms due to microembolization; in another patient, ischemia occurred 9 days after intraluminal deployment. In two, or possibly three, of the cases, the superficial femoral artery had been punctured. The device should not be used when the superficial femoral artery has been punctured, in which case complications are more likely to occur. Lower limb ischemia within several months after deployment of these devices should be investigated with duplex ultrasound scanning to examine the possibility that the ischemia may be caused by the device or by device-related thrombus. It is important to register the use of such devices in the procedural reports to make it possible to link their use to eventual later ischemic events.

The postoperative rate of HCAI is associated with cardiovascular risk factors, operative method, and degree of lower extremity ischemia. This may be of assistance when deciding on the type of operative procedure for these patients.

Aneurysms of the visceral arteries are rare. Traditional treatment has been surgical or endovascular with coil embolization. Recently, however, reports on endovascular therapy with stent-grafts have been published. We report the case of a 61-year-old man who was successfully treated with a stent-graft for a symptomatic combined celiac/hepatic artery aneurysm.

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the clinical utility of quantitative CD64 measurements to differentiate between systemic inflammation in response to surgical trauma and postoperative bacterial infection. In a consecutive series of 153 patients undergoing elective vascular surgery, peripheral venous blood samples were taken preoperatively on admission and postoperatively during the first 24h. The samples were analysed for C-reactive protein (CRP), total leucocyte counts (white blood cell (WBC)), serum procalcitonin (PCT) and neutrophil CD64 expression. Of the 153 patients, the focus is on those with (1) postoperative infection alone (group 1; n=1 4); (2) pre- and postoperative infection (group 2; n=6); and (3) postoperative fever with no other signs of infection (group 3; n=29). In group 1, all four markers were significantly increased in the 24h after surgery: CD64 (p=0.001), CRP (p=0.001), WBC (p=0.002) and PCT (p=0.012); in group 2, there was no significant difference in the CD64 (p=0.116), WBC (p=0.249) and PCT (p=0.138) values, whereas a marginal significance was shown for CRP (p=0.046); and the results for group 3 were similar to those of group 1. This pilot study suggests that the role of neutrophil CD64 measurements in facilitating the diagnosis of early postoperative infection merits further investigation.

Total prevalence of dysglycaemia in vascular surgery patients corresponds well to that of acute coronary syndromes. The prevalence of unknown pathological glucose metabolism was 44% in our OGTT material. The use of fasting glucose as the sole diagnostic tool for diabetes would have resulted in the correct diagnosis in only half of the patients tested. OGTT should be considered as a routine investigation in non-diabetic vascular surgery patients. It remains to be seen whether early diagnosis and treatment of dysglycaemia in this patient group will influence the surgical treatment and outcome.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSThis paper describes the experience of in situ reconstruction of aortic graft and endograft infections using autologous deep femoral vein and reports overall favourable patient outcomes from the procedure. In particular, the explantation of infected aortic endografts was not associated with increased mortality and morbidity, and freedom for antibiotic therapy after one year was high, indicating a high curative treatment rate. Post-operative renal damage was limited, even in patients in need of suprarenal clamping and permanent renal vein division. Autologous vein graft reconstruction of aortic graft and endograft infections represents a method of choice in these challenging patients.Objective: Aortic prosthesis infection is a devastating complication of aortic surgery. In situ reconstruction with the neo-aorto-iliac system (NAIS) bypass technique has become increasingly used and is recommended in recent treatment guidelines. The main aim was to evaluate NAIS procedural outcomes when undertaken after previous open or endovascular aortic repair in Sweden. Methods: In this retrospective study, The National Quality Registry for Vascular Surgery (Swedvasc) was used to identify Swedish centres that offered the NAIS bypass procedure for aortic prosthesis infection between 2008 and 2018. Variables of special interest were procedural details, short and long term survival, renal and other complications, and the durtion of antimicrobial treatment. Results: Forty patients (36 males, four females [mean age 69 years], 32 open repairs, seven endovascular aortic repairs [EVAR] and one fenestrated EVAR; 21 presented with aorto-enteric fistula) operated on with NAIS bypass were reviewed. The median time from the primary aortic intervention to the NAIS bypass procedure was 32 months (range 0 e 252 months). Mean AE standard deviation operating time was 645 AE 160 minutes, mean blood loss was 6 277 AE 6 525 mL, mean length of intensive care unit stay was 5.3 AE 3.7 days, and mean length of overall hospital stay was 21.2 AE 11.4 days. Thirty-five patients (88%) had a positive microbial culture; the most commonly isolated pathogen was Candida spp. The majority of patients survived for 30 days (n ¼ 35 [88%]), and 33 (83%) and 32 (80%) patients survived for 90 days and one year, respectively. The number of surviving patients free from antimicrobial treatment at 90 days, six months, and one year was 19 (58%), 29 (88%), and 30 (94%). After a mean long term follow up of 69.9 AE 44.7 months, 20 patients were still alive. Conclusion:The NAIS bypass procedure offered reasonable survival and functional outcomes, and was associated with a high cure rate, defined as freedom from any antimicrobial treatment.

Antibiotic treatment can be a useful marker for post-discharge surveillance of HCAI in patients with lower extremity arterial disease. The incidence of post-operative HCAI after lower extremity revascularization may have previously been underestimated.

This population-based study with long-term follow-up confirms the low incidence of AGI, 1.4%. The similar incidence in the emergency and non-emergency groups suggests that the index operation is not decisive in the development of AGI. The outcome of these infections generally is poor but is worse for non-surgically treated patients.